Counter-terror budget faces cut

The Foreign Office budgets for international counter-terrorism and Afghan
stabilisation will be cut, William Hague has admitted.

More cuts could follow in the coming years, the Foreign Secretary told MPs.

Mr Hague said that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office counter-terrorism budget for 2011/12 will be £38 million.

That is the same amount the FCO spent in 2010/11. Inflation means that the budget will therefore fall in real terms.

Almost 30 per cent of Britain’s international counter-terrorism budget is spent in Pakistan. About 7 per cent is spent in each of Somalia and Yemen.

The FCO counter-terrorism programme has previously funded projects including bomb-disposal training for Pakistani police officers and anti-radicalisation communication campaigns in the country.

FCO spending on work to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction will also fall in real terms after being held constant in cash terms at £3 million.

The department’s spending on counter-narcotics and rule of law programmes in Afghanistan will be £16 million, a cut of £2 million from last year.

Mr Hague said that cut will be made without affecting the outcomes of British projects in Afghanistan because several of them will reach the end of their “capital investment stage”, as buildings and other facilities will be completed.

The minister was setting out the FCO’s “programme spending” budget, which funds projects distinct from its network of embassies and consulates.

The programme budget will be £139.5 million next year, and Mr Hague said it is likely to fall in future.

“I anticipate that in future years it will be necessary to make some reductions in these allocations in order to be able to continue to support our diplomatic network overseas,” he said.

Douglas Alexander, the Labour shadow foreign secretary, said the cuts would cause public concern.

He said: “The government needs to come clean on the impact of the real terms cut the Foreign Office announced today in the absolutely vital task of countering terrorism.“

Voters will be "incredulous" that the Afghan budget is falling, he said.

In the Commons, Mr Hague told Mr Alexander: “We always have difficult choices to make on spending.”

Later, an FCO spokesman said that in the context of a 25 per cent cut in its core budget, the affected programmes had been partly protected.

He said: "All departments have to make tough choices in cutting the huge budget deficit left by the last government. In that context sustaining our spend on counter proliferation and counter terrorism progresses sends a strong signal of their importance.

"In addition we are taking steps to make that money go further, reducing administrative expenditure associated with programme spend and delegating more decisions to ambassadors."

The Coalition’s real cut in counter-terrorism spending comes after a row over Labour cuts last year when Baroness Kinnock, then a Foreign Office minister, revealed that budgets for Pakistan were being cut.

At the time, Mr Hague said that cuts in counter-terrorism spending were “clearly not the way to run an effective foreign policy.”